Page:Weird Tales Volume 8 Number 4 (1926-10).djvu/128

 simple child. She held out her white fingers to the blaze. And when the warmth came to them she was glad. She never tired of gazing into the fire, and usually she crooned a bit of a song as she stared.

Dr. Winwood took a small wineglass from the table and slowly drank its contents. Then he lay down on the couch and folded his arms peacefully across his breast as though he were about to sleep. In a few minutes he was dead. Without a tremor he had passed into the spirit world. With the aid of a stethoscope Barlow Garth assured himself that death had indeed come. Then he took up his watch and stood over the rigid form, counting the minutes. It was an awesome adventure. There was no sound in the room save the occasional crackling of the embers and the soft dreamy singing of Coralie.

One, two, three, the minutes dragged past. To Barlow Garth each seemed an age. As the fourth minute came he felt as though his nerves were being drawn taut like rubber bands. He longed for something to happen to break the dreadful spell. Even as the wish came to him, there appeared a bright glow in the room behind him as though someone had lighted a great torch. As he turned he beheld Coralie enveloped in flames. Jumping forward, he seized a great rug and wrapped it about her. He worked as quickly as though he had the energy of a dozen men. Her dress had been of a flimsy net material, and almost immediately after it had brushed against the burning log she was a mass of flames. As Bar-low fought to extinguish the fire, she moaned softly, but she did not scream. Her eyes were closed and she seemed to he losing consciousness, if such a term can be used in speaking of a girl who was scarcely ever conscious of anything.

burned his hands till the raw flesh showed before the last spark was out. But quick as he had been, he had not been quick enough. Her body was terribly burned and her face was scarred and blackened almost beyond recognition. The marvelous beauty of Coralie was gone forever. She lay as rigid before him as Dr. Winwood. Barlow Garth gazed on her in horror for a moment, then he slowly placed the stethoscope to her breast. Her heart had ceased to beat. When he was sure that life was really extinct he rose to his feet. He seized his watch. Dr. Winwood had been dead for fifteen minutes. The fatal seventh minute had come and gone.

Barlow Garth recoiled from the watch in horror. What should he do? He gazed at the gruesome thing which had once been the gorgeous Coralie. To rekindle life in her would be to subject her to untold suffering while the wounds were healing. Sadly he shook his head. Then he turned to Dr. Winwood. If he brought the doctor back to life again it would be but to make of him a living corpse. The mind would be gone. He leaned down and looked into his beloved master's face. The lips were smiling and there was an expression of calmer repose about the eyes than there had been for months. Barlow Garth bowed his head in thankfulness as he realized that Dr. Winwood had found his beloved Coralie at last.